Descent
by The-Mighty-Third-Draft
Summary: When Ronin is plunged with junior leafmen into a subterranean world, deep within enemy territory, he has to find a way to get them all home. But there are things living in the underworld that are worse than Boggans. Surviving them might still be easier, than escaping Mandrake's heir. Ronin/OC
1. Descent

Into The Deep

Ronin stared at the distant pinprick of daylight at the top of a vertical shaft. He touched the walls. Slippery. Maybe he could jump. Before he could try, there was a noise like a struggle, and a yell, and the light momentarily eclipsed. Something came clattering down. A leaf man's sword landed, still in its scabbard. Then the owner followed, rolling to a stop with a curse. She rolled over, and to Ronin's dismay, he saw a junior, complete with the markings of the recently christened leafwoman. _Great. A rookie. _

'Bastards,' she breathed. She hauled herself to her feet to retrieved her sword. Rubbing a sore arm, she went for the wall, and started to climb. Ronin followed. The light was barely adequate for climbing. He couldn't see where to grip. The walls were too slippery.

'Isn't this just great,' she turned towards him.

Ronin drew level with her and found he was looking into dark eyes. Under the shadow of her helmet, he could see her dark skin. She stared at him in shock and a bit of awe, too.

'Commander? _Commander Ronin_?' she was surprised to see him. 'Oh thank God. How do we get out of this?'

'What's your name?' Ronin asked. Introductions first. That was important when you were captive together.

'Thistledown, Padme.'

Ronin touched the slippery walls.

'Start climbing, Thistledown.'

Neither got more than ten feet before they slid back down, and landed sprawled on the cavern floor. Four or five more attempts and the rookie bent to catch her breath. She kicked a bit of wood, and looking up with her hands on her hips, she said;

'This isn't working, is it, sir?'

Ronin came sliding down. He stood too, staring up. Then he bought his hands to his nose to sniff the strange wet on his fingers.

'Oil,' he said. 'This was lined to stop us climbing back up. What did you see up there?'

'Not much, they blindfolded us. Boggans, camped out. And a few cages.'

'Us?'

'My whole group,' she said.

Ronin nodded.

'Alright, let's check down here, see if there's another way out.'

The cavern went some way back, into darkness. Ronin took out a small box, which had been outfitted with air holes and tiny, transparent spots. He shook it. It began to glow as the bugs inside produced their natural phosphorescence.

'Glow bugs,' he said. 'Handy in these situations.'

Padme pressed her hand against the back wall. There was nothing here but dry wood, no way in or out, except the shaft down which they'd fallen. At the very back there was a small dip, in the rocky floor that was just big enough for one person to lie stretched out.

_What do we do_, she thought. God, at least she'd landed with the commander and not another newbie. This was _Ronin_. The big guy. The commander. He could get out of anything. He was famous for it. You didn't mess with Ronin. She didn't want to screw up. Or worse, look useless. But she felt it. The light left Ronins face as the glow bugs stopped glowing, and he was plunged into darkness.

'Sir? Do you hear that?'

Ronin looked up. Indeed, from high above, there was shouting. Then a scuffle.

'Should we call for help?'

'No. Wait.'

Then from high above, the clattering and yelling of a falling man. Half way down, he stopped making any noise, and he rolled to a stop not far from their feet. Then the light dimmed a bit. A distant, familiar voice yelled from above.

'Fallen into a little trap!'

'Rot,' Ronin said quietly, angrily. 'I should have known he was behind this.'

'Dear me!' Rot called down, 'maybe use these last days to contemplate the past, and all that was taken from me!'

Ronin gritted his teeth.

'Passed out are we?' yelled the voice again. 'Maybe that's for the best. Goodbye, Ronin.'

'You greasy little bastard,' Ronin breathed. He clenched a fist. He wasn't going to give Mandrakes heir the satisfaction.

Then silence, except for the wounded man, whose breath came fast and shallow with the pain. Thistledown knelt beside him. Ronin watched the light above flicker, and die. And they were plunged into darkness. The boys breaths came faster. Ronin knelt slowly, and shook the bugs again. In their pale luminescence, he saw clearly now a leafman soldier of about eighteen. Ronin didn't know his face well. Somebody that Nod had trained maybe. His legs were ruined by the fall. His blood was leaking slowly from twin fractures. It soaked into the floor.

'Help me,' Ronin gestured quickly to her. Padme watched with wide eyes and barely disguised fear. 'Use your belt, tie them off.'

So two belts were fastened tightly just above his knees. The blood stopped coming so fast while the solider made noises of pain that soon became moans, and as the silence stretched, he began to cry.

'Easy, son. What's your name?' Ronin asked.

'Eric,' he stammered.

'Ease up. Deep and slow, yes? Keep the air flowing.'

A little nod. Ronin's lips tilted up encouragingly.

'That's it,' he said. 'Good lad. Now, Thistledown. Keep him warm any way you can.'

And standing he went back to the wall. It was slippery with a hundred years of mould and damp, rotting leaves. He climbed. He wasn't six feet up before he slid back down. _The definition of insanity, _he thought, _is repeating the same action again and again, expecting different results._

000

Ronin found a log to sit on to catch his breath. At his feet, Eric had gone pale and sweat beaded on his forehead.

'What happened, son?'

Eric opened his eyes long enough to look at Ronin.

'Ambushed,' he said, because he lacked the air for the pain. 'Boggans everywhere. Threw us into holes.'

'How many?'

'I don't know,' Eric shook his head. 'Seven or eight leafmen...before me. Caught...in a net...'

A seizing breath took his lungs, and for a long time Eric concentrated on trying to breathe, trying to drive the pain down.

Padme returned, and covered him with dry leaves. Ronin picked a handful up.

'These will burn. That's handy, if we're here for the night. Any water on either of you?'

Two canteens were presented. He set them aside.

'Easy, now. We're getting out. Just keep your head together.'

000

Somewhere near mid afternoon, Ronin put the boys cries to good use, calling for help. He didn't expect any to come. Once the light flooded in briefly, but it was quickly obscured. Padme sat with her bent knees under Eric's skull, and holding his hand she asked him questions.

Ronin tried again to climb, but succeeded only in getting himself covered in oil. Every time he tried, he slid down like before. At the bottom, he pulled a knife out of each boot, and dug one deep into the cavern wall. It hit rock and sent a shock up his arm, but the oil lubricated the blade, and he slid down with a screech of metal on stone.

'Rot!' he yelled. His voice echoed. _Come on, I know you're there. _'Rot!' he tried again. 'Let's talk.'

A few seconds later, the cover was moved and the light flooded in. It blinded Ronin.

'Ronin,' Rot smiled into the hole. 'What do you want to talk about? How about...how do I get into Moonhaven without being bothered by pesky guards?'

Ronin gritted his teeth and feigned relaxation.

'Come on, Rot. You can do better than that. You have _me_. You know how much they'll pay to get me back?'

'Ah, but I don't want any payment for you, Ronin. I want information. First.'

'Well I've got quite a bit of that,' Ronin promised.

'I see. Well. We can start with the entrance to the emergency tunnels.'

'I can't tell you that, Rot. But I could tell you other things. Let these two go and we can talk all you want.'

'You'd best get that knot out of your tongue, Ronin,' Rot crooned. Ronin could hear his smile, and he wanted nothing more than to smack his clever face. He wouldn't talk so smart with a broken jaw. 'When the sun comes up, we're going to add a little...excitement to your predicament.'

'Rot!' Ronin yelled. 'I'm still down here! What do you want for their lives?'

Then the light extinguished.

Ronin resisted the urge to curse. He shook the bugs. They emitted their pale glow. He picked his way over the leaves and the bracken, and the odd root from whatever weed had passed this way looking for water. Padme wiped her bloody hands on Eric's trousers. She held them up helplessly.

'I can't do anything about a fracture down here,' she said, frustrated. 'No bandages, no lint, not even a shirt. I can't do anything but tighten the belts.'

'Water-' Eric breathed.

Ronin passed a canteen that he knew was only half full. 'Go easy, that's all there is.'

000

Eric's breath began to fog as evening advanced. Ronin rested the glow bugs, and listened. He listened to the cave, for any signs that Rot had left them to starve. It was a fools hope. He'd want to watch them suffer. Or at least listen to them suffer. It got cold. So cold that their teeth chattered, and the damp chill began to seep into their bones. There would be no rest with the boy in so much pain.

'Commander-' she asked, when she came away from Eric for a few minutes. She gestured him away from the boy. Ronin went.

'What is it?'

'Sir, he's bleeding out. If we can't get him out, we're going to lose him.'

'Tighten the belts,' Ronin said.

He dragged them tighter. Eric made noises of pain and held Padme's offered hand.

'Jeez, I could have landed better,' he breathed.

'Least you landed on your legs, not your head,' she pointed out.

'Might have been better the other way,' he said.

Padme glanced at Ronin.

'None of that talk,' the commander passed them both water.

'Don't tell him-' Eric gasped. 'Don't tell him anything.'

'I might have to, son.'

'No,' Eric shook his head hard. 'No. The queen...is more important..._Don't_.'

Ronin moved in closer.

'You got any faith, either of you?' he asked.

'No,' Padme said quickly.

Eric gazed up.

'My Ma raised me the old way,' he said. 'That's the only way I'll ever live by. _Don't tell him anything_.'

000

'Rot!' Ronin yelled.

A few seconds. Then an oily voice answered.

'Yes?'

'I might consider a trade. The boy in return for...say...haven't you been trying to acquire a certain meadow. I'm sure we could arrange something.'

Silence. Ronin prayed. He couldn't bear the idea of the borders pulled back, and any more land given to Rot, but right now, it was the life of the boy that mattered most.

'What would you like me to do with him?' Rot asked.

'Set him free.'

'I could do that.'

'And send him home.'

'Ah,' Rot paused. 'That might be trickier.'

'Use my bird.'

'Oh. Ronin. I'm so sorry,' Rot said, and it was so insincere that Ronin gripped the handle of his sword hard enough to mark his palm. 'She's already...how do I say it kindly. _Stuffed_. And a very nice meal she's going to make too!'

Ronin held his temper by the strength of a single hair.

'Ronin. Honestly, I get more pleasure seeing you suffer. Good night, Commander.'

Settling beside the injured boy, Ronin put a hand on his damp forehead. He was freezing. An idiot could see he wasn't going to last. A glance by the light of the glow bugs revealed a pool of blood as large as Eric's body. Whatever was left was held in only by the clotting, and the belts. Ronin smiled.

'How many boggans did you see, son?'

'Probably...twenty. Commander - are the others going to come for us?'

Ronin looked up.

'I don't know, son. They won't leave us behind. If they even know we're here.'

Behind them, Padme persisted in her efforts to climb.

It got colder still.

'They're not coming-' Eric said, through pain and chattering teeth. He was shaking so hard that Ronin could feel it in the hand he was holding.

'No, they're not here yet,' he agreed. 'They might come before you have chance to lose your hope.'

Eric just nodded, and his eyes closed again.

'Don't go to sleep,' Ronin gave him a shake.

Eric mumbled something. Half in, half out.

'Why'd you join the leaf men, son?'

'My...mother. I wanted to...defend my family.'

'That's a good reason,' Ronin nodded. 'She's proud of you, is she?'

'Dead,' Eric said. Then he smiled, but it was half grimace. 'The last words she said...tell Eric I love him.'

He smiled up at Ronin. Then, breaking, Eric began to cry. Ronin squeezed his hand.

'Easy,' he said. 'It's just the cold. And the dark. Just a night at home. You got a lady in your life?'

Eric shook his head.

'No. Me neither. Why not? Want one?' Ronin arched an eyebrow.

'Want...the right one-' Eric tried to smile.

'Yeah,' Ronin tilted his lips up. 'Got to be the right one. Stay awake, and you'll have grandchildren.'

'My...legs,' Eric got out. 'They're cold.'

'It's just the night, son. Bad time of the year to be stuck in a hole. Somebody told me once it's warmer underground.'

Eric managed to smile.

'Doesn't feel it,' he said.

'No it doesn't. Shake it off. Keep breathing.'

A nod.

Time stretched. Ronin lit a small fire in a hollow he'd made in the leaves. They burned slowly and reluctantly because of the damp, but they put out a bit of heat. Padme kept trying. Again and again the slippery slope thwarted her.

000

'Rot!' Ronin yelled.

No answer.

'Rot!' he put all his anger into that yell, but Rot didn't answer.

'I've got a man down, Rot. Tell me what you want from me.'

'Ronin. Ronin-' Rot called down. 'Only your pain. Or the tunnels.'

'No!' Eric yelled at Ronin's back.

'If you tell me, I'll winch him up and send him home.'

'_Don't_-' Eric choked.

'How do I know you'll keep your end of the bargain?' Ronin called.

'By the sound of things, he's as good as dead Ronin. I can't put off the Angel of Death you know.'

Ronin rubbed his face. Ronin leaned over Eric.

'I..can't...breathe-' Eric whispered.

Ronin unclipped his armour so it hung looser, and grabbed the waving hand that asked, silently, for comfort.

'Hold on, son. Climb, Thistledown for Gods sakes.'

'Don't...tell him-' Eric mumbled. '_Don't-_'

'Look at me,' Ronin commanded. And to his credit, Eric tried. But his eyes slid shut as soon as he'd opened them. 'Come on, lad. Don't go to sleep.'

'Last wish...commander. _Don't_,' he breathed.

Ronin watched him fade. His breath fogging, shallow and frequent. Ronin wondered. It hurt. It was all wrong. And the frustration was written all over Ronin's face. But giving the information wasn't possible. Not even for the boy. Ronin knew, his end had been written when he'd broken on the way down. There was no way to get up there easily, and a long fly back to Moonhaven. It didn't change anything. It didn't change how Ronin felt.

'Alright,' Ronin nodded his resignation. He laid a hand on Eric's shoulder. 'Alright, lad. Easy. Easy.'

Then as Padme slid down the walls and the fogging breaths stopped. Eric went still.

Ronin's heart constricted. The boys face went slack. He hung his head over the corpse and gripped the sword. Then the air filled with the sudden smell of the recently dead.

'Shit!' Ronin yelled, and he punched a log nearby. 'Shit.'

And when Padme returned, covered in slime and mud, Ronin scrubbed at his face and sat back like a man on death row. He as silent for minutes. He was hardly surprised when Padme covered her mouth with her hand and began to cry.

'I shouldn't gotten him out-' Ronin said.

Padme didn't know what to do. She stared at the dead boy and gulped back her fear.

'Sir...it wasn't your fault. You can't betray the queen!'

'Maybe I could've gotten back to Moonhaven to stop Rot in time, maybe-' Ronin tailed off, and rubbing a hand over his skull he shook his head and stared at her.

'And if you hadn't, sir? It's not your fault. It's rot, that ugly little bastard!'

'No, he was my responsibility. I failed to protect him.'

Padme sat down, tiredly.

'I don't dare jump,' she whispered.

Ronin shook his head.

'Shit,' he breathed.

000

Night wore on. Beside him, the girl sat staring at the dead body. More than once her breathing hitched, until Ronin dragged him to the other side of the cave and covered him with bracken and leaves. At least it gave the impression they'd tried to give him a bit of dignity, and it got him out of her sight. Ronin looked at her in the light of the glow bugs.

'You're a junior,' he observed. 'How long since you joined?'

Padme nodded, then she remembered who she was talking to.

'Yes, sir. Nine weeks, sir.'

'Did you know him?' Ronin gestured to Eric.

Padme shook her head.

'Neither did I.'

Padme tried to make herself comfortable against the wall. It was damp, and so cold that she shook under her armour. She'd never been so cold. Not far away, the commander turned.

'Go to the back,' he said, 'there's bare rock. You might as well sleep.'

'What about you?'

'I don't fancy my dreams,' he said. 'Go on.'

000

Padme woke to strange noises. It was brighter in the cave. Her back ached with the damp. She was hungry.

'What's that?' she said softly, and turning her head up, Ronin realized he could hear something too.

Rustling, then the cover slid back over the hole.

'Enjoy my little...pets,' Rot called down.

Ronin drew his sword, and stood facing the light. Rustling, creeping down, something climbed down the shaft, and Ronin realized that Rot was going to leave the light, to give him a fighting chance.

'Oh Shit,' Padme whispered.

Then Ronin realized what she was looking at. Slipping out of the dark, shriveled black bodies. First he thought they were slugs. Coming one by one. They raised their noses, caught the scent. Ronin could hear the girl breathing hard. She was scared.

'Not leeches,' she breathed.

He laid a hand over hers, where it gripped the hilt of her sword.

'In half,' he said. 'So they lose their speed. Then quarter them. They'll keep moving. We'll make mince meat of the bits later.'

'One for each of you,' Rot called.

'Thanks,' Ronin said to himself. 'I appreciate the heads up.'

Padme almost danced away in horror from the twitching, writing body of her first kill. Ronin grabbed her by the arm, dragging her down before the thing dangling from the ceiling could get her by the back of the head.

'You don't like leeches,' he observed.

She yelled when something brushed past her leg.

'I could handle snails. Slugs. Even snakes. God I can't stand leeches-'

'Nothing wrong with leeches,' Ronin had to smile. If this was all Rot could come up with, it was going to be easier than he'd assumed to stay alive. He'd just given them dinner. 'They roast well. And I've never met such cooperative prey.'

'What's this?' Padme squeaked, backing away from the tide spreading from a slit body. 'Oh SHIT!'

'What is it?'

'Commander? It's trolls blood. And they have a centipede. I saw it on the way down.'

'Great. How do you feel about things with legs?'

'I'm not keen, sir, to be honest.'

'I think you may have to get used to them,' he gestured to the sticky, green goo bleeding from the leech. 'It's a trap. That's...really clever.'

'Why doesn't he just kill us?'

Ronin realized she was quite a bit shorter than he, then. Still, those eyes, barely visible in the dim light. They were almost haunting. He'd never seen eyes quite like them. So dark they seemed to absorb all the light.

'He wants us to suffer,' Ronin said. 'He's hoping to wear us down. He left us with weapons. He's not interested in straight murder. He'll keep us going like this for as long as he can.'

And above, something struggled, screeched, began to scuffle and was turned loose into the hole. Ronin shook the glow bugs and tossed them against the wall. They landed on the leaves, and glowed. He glanced at the rookie.

'I'd say go for the head. But in this case, with so little room, I think it might be smarter to...segment it.'

Padme just nodded.

'Alright,' she said. Then with a hint of humour, she said; 'slice or dice?'

Ronin's lips tilted up.

'Either,' he said. 'So long as it stops moving.'

It came faster than the leeches. It spilled, writhing into the chamber, and rearing it twisted toward them. A bite of the leeches and the rippling, scuttling thing surged forward, jaws open. It'd been a long time since Ronin had battled a centipede high on trolls blood. Whatever they had floating around their system did something to centipedes. Turned them into monsters. Maybe, he thought, as he swung for the back end to take a few legs out, it gave them the munchies. He sliced off four, and the thing turned and snapped for his heels.

Curling around its injury, it lashed out at Padme. The pincer jaws snapped shut inches from her belly. She escaped a second snap by diving over its back, and rolling off its legs, she was spared a gruesome end by Ronin's sword, shoved up through its lower jaw.

It pushed so hard onto the blade, Ronin wondered if it'd impale its own brain to get to him. Lifting him off the floor, he hung on, and swinging his weight he managed to work the blade free. He hit the floor flat on his back, and rolled before the centipede could crush him with an uncoordinated thrust of its head. Reeling back, it hit the cave wall and sent leaves and bracken falling in an avalanche with a great _whoomph_. Ronin caught sight of the cracks in the wall it exposed, but he didn't have time to think about it too deeply.

The centipede coiled around and tried to climb, but the walls were too slippery. Ronin swiped its blood and spittle off his face and chest and held the sword up. Padme bumped his arm with her elbow.

'Legs,' she said.

Ronin looked to where the severed legs were leaking the fluids responsible for the centipedes motion. He smiled.

'Hey!' she yelled, waving her arms. 'If I dance will you chase me!'

The centipede turned for her, lunged, and Ronin sliced off six more legs.

Curling hard and fast, Ronin gasped when it grabbed him by the body, and lifting him, it slammed his head against the wall and bought him, drowsy and confused, to the crunching mandible which – fell off. Padme balanced on its back, her sword pointed at its face.

Ronin shook himself, but it was hard to throw off a concussion. Squirming, he got an arm free and looked for his sword. He caught it by the moonlight that shone off the blade. Ronin glanced up. _Rookie's not so bad_, he thought, as she shoved the sword forward into its skull, and was lifted on the screeching thing and tossed back and forth, until she came loose and landed on the dead man.

Ronin grabbed his sword, pulled a knife from his boot, and ran, even in the tiny space. Skidding under the writhing body, he held the blades out and the huge body came crashing down, writhing on top of him. Trapped, hydraulic fluids leaked through his armor.

He heard the girl drag her sword free of its face, and deliver a blow to the back of its neck. He was surprised when she grabbed the body and pushed, and revealed him squished underneath.

'Commander!' she breathed, and bending she grabbed him by the forearms and dragged him onto the leaves.

Ronin hauled himself up, clutching his head.

'Seven sisters, I'd have thought I'd had enough head trauma for one lifetime.'

'Are you OK, sir?'

Ronin nodded. 'I'll have a splitting headache tomorrow. Yeah.'

'Better that a split head,' Padme smiled.

'Yeah,' he had to agree. 'Who trained you?'

'Corporal Nod,' Padme smiled. 'I'm starting to feel pretty grateful for that now.'

'You weren't before?' he quizzed.

Padme wisely said nothing. She was keeping her secrets. At first she'd thought Nod was an arrogant fool. Now she was thinking differently.

'Commander? What's this?'

Ronin went to the wall, and running his hand down it, he found it was cracked deeply. Like someone had come along with a chisel actually, and carved weaknesses into the rock.

'Probably just loose stones,' he said, though they looked like they'd once been a single rock face.

Ronin pushed, first carefully, then with all his strength. Padme joined him, but the rock didn't give. In the end, he gave up and leaving it, he all but collapsed onto a log.

'Sir? Is this edible?' she pointed to the centipede.

'Edible...yes,' he nodded. 'But you won't want it when you taste it.'

'What about those?'

'Trolls blood isn't deadly. But you'll puke like you've never puked before. Centipede is the better option. If you can stand the...consistency.'

Padme sat down beside him, dropping her sword on the leaves.

'What's the consistency?' she asked.

'Jelly,' he turned to her. 'Are you hurt?' he asked.

Padme held up an arm. There was a break in her armour and blood surrounding it, but it didn't look serious.

'Just a battle scar,' she said. 'My Mum will be so proud.'

Ronin's lips tilted.

'Mine was too. At first,' he said.

'Are we stuck here, sir?'

Ronin nodded.

'Seems that way.'

'In a hole with a dead body and a leaky bug,' she said, then she looked at him, and seemed to remember who she was with. 'Sir.'

'You think tagging sir on the end means you can say what you think?' Ronin asked.

Thistledown dropped her eyes.

'No, sir. Sorry, sir.'

Ronin breathed out slowly.

'Good idea. I _want_ you to think. Think a way out of here, and when you've got one, say so. I like soldiers who can think for themselves, and I like it even better when they speak up, Thistledown.'

'Oh. Yes, sir. OK.'

'It could be worse,' he said. 'It could be two dead men and a leaky bug, and no toilet.'

'There's a toilet, commander?'

'Over there. Behind the log.'

Padme stared at him, the humor gone from her face. She wasn't sure what to do with him. Should she take it as a joke, or assume he was serious? She'd heard plenty about Commander Ronin. You didn't mess with him. You didn't cheek him either.

'Oh God,' she said. 'Tell me you're...not serious? Are you pulling my leg?'

He gestured to the centipede.

'Ask him, he has some going free.'

Then at her worried look her shook his head. 'I'm joking, Thistledown. We're stuck in a hole together. I'm trying to put you at ease.'

Padme relaxed. Just a bit.

'Oh. Thanks,' she finally said, nervously. 'I'm just grateful I fell in here with someone who can fight.'

Ronin took his helmet off and laid it on the ground. He rubbed his skull.

'What're we going to do?' Padme asked.

She followed suit. She laid it in her lap, and gazed at the commander with big, brown eyes. Ronin took her in. No, he definitely hadn't seen her aside from once in a line up. She was quite pretty. Tall and slender – perhaps bordering a bit skinny, though muscular. Her eyes commanded a certain attention, and he'd been right when he thought they were quite enchanting.

'Sit tight. Wait for rescue,' he said. 'Unless we can figure another way out of here.'

'There's food for...maybe three days,' she said, referring to the bug.

'In three days, you'll be sick of it,' he promised her. 'But it's good to see a positive spirit in a fellow captive.'

000

Ronin didn't know how much time had passed. He sat over the small fire. Beside him, the girl shivered for some time. Then she went to the log, and uncomfortably too. He could feel her watching his back nervously.

'I'm not gonna look,' he called. 'A sexual harassment case is the last thing I need,' he muttered.

He heard a little snort and wondered if he'd made her laugh. When she came back, she was half way across the path they'd cut when she turned suddenly.

'What's that smell? Sir? Can you feel that?'

Ronin turned.

'Feel what?' he said, before the flames flickered in a cross wind.

Ronin followed the trail. It lead to the cracked wall. Padme crept up behind him, still fastening her armor back together. Dangling over her shoulder, long dark hair was coming loose from a bun. She turned to look at him.

'Fresh air,' she said.

'But how do we get through?'

Padme shrugged.

'We tried brute force and ignorance,' she said. Ronin gazed at her.

'Maybe we could try brains,' she suggested, and she grabbed a stick. She jammed it into one of the cracks and started working it in.

She was sure she felt a stronger gust of wind, before noise from above implied something was taking place on the surface. The leaf men stared up. Ronin listened. Yells, shouts. And...like the wind. Cries like a tortured wind.

'Sir, what is that?' Padme asked, shivers running up and down her arms.

Ronin shook his head.

'I don't know.'

Then the hiss of alien voices, and the wail of air pressured around tight valves and tubes. Like the moans of spirits, trapped in the ground, the fresh air intensified and Ronin backed away from the wall.

Padme turned to stare at it. Then screams. Scuffles. The sound of birds taking off, and camp fires left abandoned. Water barrels sloshed over. Then somebody yelled a retreat, and Ronin knew the prisoners had been abandoned. Sitting in the middle of a rotten marsh, what could be worse than a Boggan patrol holding captives? Something was, he realized. And the sunlight eclipsed as they began to slither down.

The wailing hiss got louder, the pressured air, a pneumatic nightmare was coming down the shaft. Padme grabbed his arm. Ronin stared into the dark.

'Get back, to the back of the cave,' he whispered.

'What are they?'

'I don't know. I've never heard anything like it.'

Fleeing to the back of the cave, the leaf men crouched and watched. Padme gasped when they appeared, slipping through the darkness. Their voices like the distant cries of damned spirits, she wanted desperately to cover her eyes.

'Oh God-' she breathed.

Even Ronin shivered. Goosebumps rose along his arms. Worse when one stopped, and glistening in the light from above, it turned its crimson head toward them. Huge, reflective white eyes absorbed every photon available. Ronin kept absolutely still. Behind him, Padme didn't dare to breathe. Then its gaze swung the dead man.

'Oh God, no-' she breathed, as it removed the leaves, and three gathered around – to feed. 'No!' she whispered.

Crunching and breaking, the sound of absorption and the awful wailing noises. Padme clapped a hand over her mouth. Ronin put an arm out, subconscious protection for the girl. He pushed her against the wall, and listened to her breathing shorten as they munched and crunched, and then a blast of warm, fresh air echoed up from the depths and the rocks parted to a glowing cavern beyond.

Ronin stared. As they slithered inside, the glow illuminated them. They glistened like fresh blood, and their silver eyes scanned the cavern as they left. On the other side, they slithered up the wall and turned upside down, slipping along on the ceiling. Inside their cavern, a drip of water fell in the wrong direction, and broke on the ceiling. And the rocks closed behind them.

Padme's breaths came short and sharp and she gripped her helmet with shaking hands. Ronin felt sick. Sicker than sick. Sick enough to throw up. He held it down, barely.

'Oh God, they ate him-'

'I'm not so sure,' Ronin whispered.

000

Ronin piled another log onto the fire. Then he glanced at the spot where the leeches and the centipede had fallen.

'They were...wailing,' Padme said, rubbing her arms. _'Wailers.'_

Ronin nodded.

'That's a good name for them,' he agreed.

'Sir? Have you ever seen anything like that before?'

'No,' Ronin admitted. 'Nothing. They were _talking_. Animals don't make noises unless they're talking.'

'What could they be talking about?' she asked doubtfully.

'I'm not sure. But if it speaks, then it breathes. If it eats, then it probably shits, breeds, thinks-'

'Sir...are you saying those things were...thinking?'

'And talking about what they thought, yes.'

'What good will it do us, commander? They're gone.'

'But we know where they went,' he pointed out.

Standing at the bottom of the shaft, he yelled for Rot. For some time, he did that, until it became clear that no one was covering the hole to block the moonlight. And nobody was answering. It was silent above.

'We've been left behind,' he surmised. 'Help me track what the Wailers did, when they came down here.'

000

Time passed slowly. Two or three times they went over the moves the Wailers had made. There was no hidden levers, no stones in the floor that suddenly depressed and opened the door. Just the cracked wall.

'They didn't even leave the armour,' she whispered. 'Not even the scales. What are we going to eat?'

Ronin stared at the wall.

'I hope they come back,' he said.

'Sir?'

'Because we can't get out on our own.'

* * *

A/N - More to come, when time allows. Let me know what you think.

Also, you may notice I've changed the rating. Re reading this I thought it was best to cover my behind. It is quite dark and it's going to contain some adults themes past this chapter. Enjoy ;)


	2. Inverse

Inverse

Chattering, they returned. Ronin had been awake most of the night. He'd been listening. Sometimes he prayed, silently, to the old Gods. The Seven Sisters. Ronin was a boy educated on the cusp, the meeting point where one faith was replaced by another. While others still appealed to the new, singular deity, Ronin prayed to the Seven Sisters.

_Sisters protect me. Sisters watch over me. I give you faith, you give me luck. Get me out of here so I can go home, for Ma's sake. Protect my family. Sisters protect me. Sisters watch over me..._

'Commander,' Padme disturbed his train of thought. 'I need to...er-' she gestured to the log with her thumb.

'Oh. Alright. I'm not looking,' he nodded.

She padded over and went about the business of trying to keep her business quiet. Staring at the leaves on the floor, Padme figured her night vision had never been so good. It seemed she'd adjusted to the dark, and now she was seeing details where before she'd only been able to see blur and darkness. Being able to see a bit made it easier to cope. Padme looked at the commanders back. His pristine white jacket wasn't so white anymore. She'd lost track of how long they'd been down here.

She had to admit, when she'd first laid eyes on Ronin in basic training, she'd thought him a bit of an arsehole. A big man with an attitude to match. She hadn't seen much of the good side his closer officers spoke of. But he'd surprised her, and she was growing a grudging respect for him now. His way with the dying man suggested it was something he'd had to do a lot. She wondered how many times he'd been captive. She already hated this hole. Dank and now stinky, and not a place she wanted to die in. If she'd been with anyone but the commander, she'd have given up hope.

Before she'd buttoned herself up she felt a familiar gust of fresh air. Caught somewhere between fear and excitement, she fled for the back of the cave. Only a moment behind her, Ronin came through the gap and handed her helmet over. He settled in front of her. Then sure enough, the stones were parting and through them came the noise of the Wailers. Ronin gestured for Padme to hang back.

'I'll go first,' he said softly.

But then, slithering down the tube, Ronin saw that more Wailers were coming in from above. Something made him stick to the shadows. Then in the light from the distant cavern, where water dripped in the wrong direction, and bugs could be seen flying upside down, Ronin saw the line of Wailers begin to filter into the underground world. Each one carried a body. Dead leaf men. Ronin counted. Seven.

'What're they doing?' Padme hissed.

Ronin retreated.

'I don't know.'

'What are they!' she breathed.

Ronin held a hand up for quiet.

'I don't know,' he said.

Padme shivered. She'd been down here overnight now. The damp was creeping into her bones, making her ache. Then the Wailers began to slither closer to their fire, and Padme realised, sooner or later they were going to see they had human company.

'Oh God-' Padme breathed, as the monster folded its bulbous red body to sniff around the dying embers. Then it wailed, once, loudly, to draw attention. And they were approaching.

'Commander-' Padme was panicking. Trying not to was pointless.

Ronin could hear the fear in her voice. He backed her up against the wall, and one hand on his sword, knelt in the tiny space, tense and ready.

The thing came closer. Shuffling forward on its soaking base, the light from their cavern scythed down its crimson skull as it leaned in, and extending a long neck, it peered right into Ronin's eyes. Its silver eyeballs flamed with deep lights. There was no mouth. It generated the strange wail by the opening and closing of tubes in its skin. It shook the air around it. Behind him, Padme gripped his shoulder and made a little noise that spoke right to his heart, and made his insides tremble.

'Hello?' Ronin tried, because he knew from experience that it was make or break. A greeting could save their lives. A gust of warm air blasted over his face from the siphon tubes, which opened all at once. He'd been expecting the monster to stink. He found it didn't. Or maybe his nose was just desensitized by the smell in the cavern now.

'Can we talk? Do you speak?'

The silver eyes blinked. Once. Slowly.

'OK. It's OK.' he said to it soothingly. He slowly bought his hand away from the hilt of his sword. Whatever it was, it had the mass of at least two men. Ronin didn't want to gamble that it was always so slow to move. He didn't want to check for teeth either.

'This was just a precaution, OK?' he went on. 'I'm freaked out, just so you know,' he gestured with his thumb. 'So's she. Bit weird meeting someone else down here.'

No answer. The crimson slug with its odd, extendable neck, tracked around, and focused on Padme, who was now hiding behind her commanding officer. Before Ronin could guess what it was doing, it extended a single tendril to touch her face.

'Hey, what are you doing!' she tried to swat it away, but the creature persisted.

'It's OK. Let him,' Ronin encouraged her. He held his hands out where they could see. 'See? We're friendly enough. Except for when we have bad gas.'

His smile soon faded as three more heads crowded into the doorway. Ronin swallowed hard around his own fear. Behind him, Padme worked herself into the corner and he extended a hand her. It closed around her shin. He hoped she got the message. _Cooperate. Don't panic._

Then they started wailing, and even Ronin had to admit the sound was enough to make even the bravest warrior want to use the boys room. It sounded like the cries of a tortured soul, and it went on and on. Like a discussion one would wail, and then the other. Ronin didn't want to see them in the light. He didn't want to know what was happening to the people they'd carried down. But this cage had been built to contain him. They were probably his only chance. It chilled him to the bone. Ronin could hear the rookie crying. He felt sorry for her, but that was as far as he could go.

'Does anyone...talk?' he said finally. 'Do you understand me?'

_'Living,'_ said a red face, then, in a low, breathy whisper. '_Living.'_

Again Ronin received a face-full of that air they expelled, and oddly it still didn't smell bad.

'Sorry?' Ronin shifted position. 'We don't mean you any harm. We were trapped here.'

Then the glistening heads retreated, and left only the one who'd spoken. Padme peered over Ronin's shoulder.

_'Mate-'_ he gestured to her, with a single tendril. '_It's_ s_trong. Healthy.'_

'What, no, I-' Padme objected.

'Quiet,' Ronin commanded her.

_'Mate,'_ said the slug beast again._  
_

'Yes,' he agreed, though he knew it would upset her. He was pretty sure he could figure out what it meant.

Then the thing retreated. Glancing over its shoulder, it blinked once, slowly. Ronin's hands were shaking. He pulled Padme to her feet and put a hand in the hollow of her back.

'It could save our lives. Don't let me down. Walk slowly. No sudden moves. Agree with everything I say.'

Padme didn't have the strength to argue. She walked, the commanders hand warm and safe.

'Easy,' he breathed, as they gazed into the upside down world.

_'Down,'_ said the crimson beast, and he slithered into the light.

Padme nearly retched. Ronin too, had trouble now, keeping his cool. Even fighting Mandrake he hadn't been as scared as he was now. He could feel the tension thrumming in his muscles, and he wanted nothing more than to run and keep running until they were as far away as possible. Stepping into the subterranean world seemed like a step in the wrong direction. Still, some deep instinct was pushing him to try. He followed it.

Mould and rot, fungus and bones, old fragments of death and decay, and all around them, the Wailers exchanged conversation in their odd voices. The smell of a world persistently turning from life to decay. It was choking, but Ronin could smell fresh air, too, implying this place was habitable. Or at least, well ventilated. He stepped inside. Padme's legs nearly gave out. Ronin hauled her up against his side and put his mouth by her ear.

'Easy, Thistledown. We'll be out of here by nightfall.'

'Sir...they're made of blood-' she gasped.

'So are we,' he pointed out. 'See the similarities, Thistledown, not the differences. It might save our lives.'

Walking upside down felt so odd. Ronin wasn't sure he could keep his head down here, and he definitely didn't expect the girl to last long. She was so pale she might as well have seen a ghost, and he was sure he didn't look much better. His hands shook. As they walked, his balance began to adjust a little bit and his brain seemed to block the fact he was the wrong way up. he found himself treading the walls, the ceiling along perfectly round corridors, unsure of which way was up or down. A drop of brown, red liquid came from below, and dripped upwards. Wherever he stood, gravity predictably pulled him down. Padme walked in silence. She was clearly terrified, but he had to hand it to her, she had the sense to put her trust in him. And to hold herself in check. For now.

'Where is this?' Ronin asked. Nobody answered. 'Where the hell are we going.'

'I need to go back-' she breathed.

Ronin grabbed her hand.

'Stay where you are,' he commanded dangerously.

'I need to – go-'

'_Strong,_' said the strange, red face, which glistening like fresh blood seemed to be made of the very same. _'Healthy.'_

'Yes, she is. Where are we?'

'It's the underverse,' Padme breathed, trying to keep air in her lungs and whatever was left in her tummy, in. 'It's a story, from a long time ago. They're the Breakers.'

'What are you talking about?'

'_This way_,' breathed the Wailer, and gesturing with a tendril, he offered them a lengthy corridor.

Once inside, it was hard to see which way was up and which was down. Ronin tried to forget about that, despite having had fifty years of gravity behaving very consistently. He looked at every surface he could, trying to persuade his brain to adjust completely. He felt uneasy, but so far nobody had either demanded his weapon or shown him hostility. There were doors here. The blood beast approached one, and he slid right through the black, shivering slick that was strung like a thin membrane of oil. Ronin cringed.

'Come on,' he encouraged Padme, and he stepped through it into a large, spherical room.

With the tendril, the beast gestured to food, and to a large, soft surface that might be a bed. He extended a second one to the window, where Ronin could see oily, slick curtains and beyond it, a view of a great cavern. He guessed,

'For us to rest in?'

A blink. Once. Slowly.

'Much appreciated,' he nodded. 'Thank you.'

And with a single backward glance back, the Wailer left. Padme sank, and Ronin went with her just to keep her from falling. When she was on her knees, she shut her eyes tightly and he could hear her trying to breathe steadily. It wasn't working.

'Easy,' he said gently. 'Easy, Thistledown.'

Then thankfully, she started to cry. Actually he was quite grateful for that, because crying was better than panicking any day. Crying was a bit more productive.

'What're we going to do?' she sobbed.

'What I always do,' he said softly, 'find a way out. You wanna stay down here Thistledown?'

'No!' she squeaked.

'Then follow my lead. We'll get out. This is better than the cavern, isn't it?'

Padme swiped the tears off her face and gripped his armoured forearm.

'Barely,' she admitted.

'It's better,' he mused softly.

Padme was shaking.

'This is...I think I'm going to be sick-'

Ronin listened to that next bit and tried to keep his water down too. When she'd finished retching into a fruit bowl, she laid back and gazed up at Ronin.

'My Grandmother used to tell me stories,' she said. 'About the Body Breakers. They happen when the stompers have a great battle. You see, the stompers bleed so much that they turn the fields into marshes. The Breakers come out of the ground, hungry for dead things. They don't have real bodies, so they have to make them out of whatever they can find. Then they eat the corpses, and feed them to their hive.'

Ronin nodded.

'Wailer suits them better,' Ronin said. 'You know, two days ago I'd have laughed at you and written up up a sick note. Now I couldn't care less what they are as long as we can get out of here.'

He went to the huge, lens-like window and peered out. A vast world awaited, but there were more floors and more ceilings than he was used to.

'Ugh,' he made a noise of complaint. 'That's more dimensions than I want to see at this point. Even I'm starting to feel sick.'

A quick exploration revealed they were in some sort of accommodation. Ronin pushed open a door and found something quite like an en suite. A deep pool was fed by a constant stream of trickling water, and it was temptingly warm. An arrangement in the corner was probably the toilet, and they'd even provided paper.

'Thistledown! Get a look-'

She came to the door and peered in.

'Guests of honour, it seems.'

'Why?' Padme said. 'Why are we being treated so well?'

'I don't know,' Ronin said. 'Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should trust them. But there's food and a bed and we need both. Take advantage for now. We'll rest, then we'll find a way out.'

Wandering back into the main room, he found his brain was almost managing now. He could more or less map the floor, by virtue of the fact it was the bit his feet always landed on. So his head ended up in weird positions, like he was waling around inside the skin of a big fruit. Big deal. Ronin was starting to wonder if he needed the fruit bowl himself. He glanced down at the girl, who sagged against a pillow. She did look awful.

'Is this edible?' he wondered aloud, picking up an apricot.

'Probably not,' she said.

Ronin bit into it.

'Don't be so sure,' he said, with juice on his lips. 'Tastes OK to me.'

He tossed her an apple.

'Come on, fill your stomach while we've got the chance.'

000

'What do you mean, they're gone!' Rot leaned over his general, a skinny bug. 'Gone where?'

'We don't know-' Sludge admitted.

Rot grimaced.

'You don't know. What do I pay you for, Sludge? Wait. I don't pay you.'

He turned to the pools of steaming, festering rot and breathed out through his nose.

'Those blasted blood demons. Straight from hell. We should wipe them, out.'

Rot shuddered. He'd never see anything so horrible as the walking sacks of blood that had so easily shooed the Boggans off their land, and reclaimed even the pits and the prisoners. They'd probably been eaten by now, he mused. Or sucked dry. Then he got angry. Because it was his job to kill Ronin, no one else's.

'Send a patrol!' he turned on Sludge. 'Go. Find out where they went. Do not fail me.'

000

Ronin sat awake while the girl tossed and turned. Eventually she sat up and dragged the band out of her hair. It fell to well below her shoulders. Ronin turned for a good look at her. She was pretty, he thought privately. But this was entirely the wrong time to be thinking like that.

'It's no good. I can't get to sleep when I'm surrounded by...flesh eating blood monsters.'

'Well, they don't seem to want to eat the living,' Ronin said quietly.

Padme had to concede that point.

'You know, sir, I've never had any faith since I was fifteen. But if I get out of this alive, I'll go to the temple every day until the day I die.'

Ronin had to smile.

'I'm not so sure the gods demand quite that much. Maybe you could get away with once a week?'

Padme shook her head.

'Every day,' she said decisively, 'I really love being alive. Can't you sleep?'

Ronin looked at his sword, which he'd been holding since she dozed off.

'I'd sooner not, not just yet. Not until we know what we're dealing with.'

'Do you really want to _know_?' she quipped.

Ronin's lips lifted again.

'No,' he said. 'Try and get some rest, Thistledown. One of us should be on the ball, even if I'm the walking dead by morning.'

000

Some time later, the girl rolled over and spoke softly to him.

'Commander? Why do you think they haven't killed us?'

'They want us alive,' he shrugged, logically. He was laying on his back fully clothed.

Ronin peered out from behind the drawn curtains. Below, a hive of the blood beasts were building something that looked like a chamber. Its honeycomb structure implied some sort of storage. He breathed out slowly through his nose.

'Alright,' he said to himself. 'So they make baby blood bugs. Everybody needs to breed. Just deal with it.'

Padme looked at him from the bed.

'Or food,' she suggested. 'We might be part of that.'

Then the doorway veil rippled, and absorbing through it, three Wailers approached slowly. When they saw Ronin and Padme standing by the window, they emitted a weird, hissing sound. They slid forward.

'Wow..._wow_, what are you doing!' Ronin resisted the tendril. It took him by the wrist and pulled his hand towards Padme. Meanwhile, she was having similar difficulties.

'No, stop that-' Padme grimaced as the tendrils united her hand with the commanders. Ronin nodded.

'That's nice,' he said to them. 'Nice to see you so interested. What do you want exactly?'

Then two tendrils began to move. One made an 'O' and the other gesticulated quite clearly what they wanted.

'Oh my God-' Padme breathed. 'No fucking way-'

'Now, now love-' Ronin adapted like a chameleon. It was what had kept him alive. 'Keep your hair on, yes? They know we don't do that sort of thing in front of other people.'

Three Wailers discussed. Ronin begged Padme with his eyes to get the point. The big, red faces blinked together. Once. Slowly. Then he was pushed forward gently but quite firmly. Padme too, was encouraged into his arms. Before long, he found himself holding her. Her big, brown eyes were full of fear.

'What're you doing?' she whispered.

'Trust me,' Ronin dropped his voice. 'Easy. Trust me.'

Then as the last one absorbed into the doorway, Padme pushed him away.

'No fucking way,' she hissed.

Ronin rolled his eyes, his hands spread wide.

'Thistledown, use your head. You think I did it for the kick? You want to take on a whole hive of those things?'

Padme stared at him.

'I don't even want to be here.'

Ronin approached her.

'Well that's just tough. You are. And you've got to survive, and help me survive. If they want us to look like I'm your boyfriend, we damn well do it because the alternative might be a fight.'

'But-'

'I'm down here alone with...no offense...a rookie,' Ronin breathed, clearly frustrated with her inability to understand. 'Leafmen work as a team. We've got you. And me. And nobody's gonna come and wipe up the mess, or toss me a rope here.'

Padme wanted to cry. Ronin went on.

'You follow my lead and you do whatever I tell you to do. And you trust me not to go too far. And maybe, we'll be out of here before we're turned into bug food.'

'Yes sir.'

Ronin shook his head.

'I don't want 'yes sir,' he said.

'What do you want then?' she said, exasperated.

He leaned in.

'I want yes _Ronin_. I want _yes, I see you're alive like I am **Ronin**_. I want you to understand what you're dealing with. Right now we're not leaf men. We're a man and a woman trapped in a nest of monsters. Alone. We've got nobody to rely on but ourselves. Without our armour we're dead,' he said. 'Never mind attack. Trips. Falls. Poison.'

'Yes Ronin,' she said. Using his name did have the desired effect. It made her realize he was real. Not just the commander, but a man who was fighting like she was for their survival.

'Try to get your head around it. Take your armour off and see how you feel without it. That's how I feel now, trying to protect you and me and get us home safe.'

He calmed down. Padme ran a hand through her hair.

'I don't leave anyone behind,' Ronin said then. 'You better turn out to be the same, Thistledown.'

000

Ronin tried the door a bit later. He found it bent and stretched, but it wouldn't let him pass.

'Great,' Padme sighed, from the bed. 'We can get in but we can't get out. I feel so great here. Can we book in for a holiday?'

Ronin shook his head.

'No,' he said. 'I want to go somewhere warm where I don't have to sleep in my armour.'

Padme looked up at him. She wasn't sure but that sounded like a joke. They moved around the room, testing pictures, moving objects, trying walls.

'Out of the frying pan,' she breathed.

'I need some sleep,' he admitted, collapsing onto the bed. 'Is this thing worth sleeping on?'

'Quite comfortable actually.'

'Alright. Keep watch.'

Padme glanced at the commander, who was breathing steadily now, laying on his back on the bed. Padme sighed. How had she gotten into this stupid situation? Joining the leaf men had looked like an adventure. It definitely was. She'd just been so sure she was going to walk out alive. She reached for the chain that hung around her neck and looked at the locket. It was the only thing she had of her mothers. Wearing it to work probably wasn't a very good idea.

Padme was in the en suite when the Wailers came through the doorway slick. Her wet clothes were laid out and she was wearing only what she needed to have on to be decent.

'Oh shit!' she hissed, as they noticed her absence.

A crimson head preceded a bulbous body into the wash room. The thing took her by two tendrils, and forcing her to abandon her wet clothes, it pulled her, kicking and protesting, toward the sleeping man.

'Get off me!' she yelped, as it dragged her over the bed. She had to admit, it wasn't exactly hurting her. But its grip was firm enough and its strength enough that fighting wasn't really an option.

'Oh God-' she yelped, as she was placed carefully over his hips. 'Get off me!' she yelled, wrenching her hand out of its grip.

Then Ronin opened bloodshot eyes and stared up at her. The Wailers blinked approvingly.

'OK,' Ronin held his hands open. He had no intention of actually touching the half naked leaf woman sitting on his body. 'Wow. This is a...surprise.'

Padme struggled upright, but the Wailers took hold of her and pushed her back down. She fought the tendrils, until Ronin sat up beneath her and intervened.

'Alright,' he said. 'I'm not in the best place, so we'll make this quick. A man has to be gotten in the mood, alright? You don't just dump a half naked lady on his lap and expect him to perform.'

He sighed, casting a guilty glimpse at the girl, who was actually quite close to tears now. Ronin sat up and tipped her gently onto the bed. An arm around her shoulders he said patiently;

'I'll grant you, I can think of a few ways it might work, but _you've got to let us get some sleep first_.'

Padme covered her face with her hands and cursed as they retreated again. Ronin released her quickly.

'Are you OK? Why are you naked?'

Padme swallowed her tears.

'I tried getting the blood off,' she said.

Ronin's jaw tightened.

'Why did you take your armour off for a bath?' he stared at her. Then he shook his head. 'Seven sisters I'm down here with an idiot. Go to sleep. You might as well.'

000

Padme did sleep, eventually. First fitfully, with bad dreams. Then solidly, until she woke to a dark room. She stirred, but a hand grabbed her and drew her down quickly.

'Quietly,' Ronin breathed.

Padme searched for his face in the dark, and as he eyes woke up, she found him. He was lying on his side, his hand on his sword, fully clothed. Padme put a hand on the mattress. It was soaking wet.

'I've found a way out,' he breathed. 'Every couple of hours or so they come and check on us. Always three. Put your armour on, in the dark, quietly.'

'But we tried everywhere-' she breathed.

'Not exactly,' he said.

Padme crept towards the en suite, and pointing down into the water, Ronin said;

'Down there, there's a drain covered by a grille. Just big enough for us to slip through. If we can get it off-'

'It could go anywhere!' Padme hissed.

'Anywhere's better than here,' he said.

She couldn't argue. But then, without warning, the lights came up suddenly and Ronin heard the distant sound of Wailers. Then they came through the veil, and it was too late. Ronin peeked through a crack.

'Oh shit, they're going to know!' Padme hissed, looking down at herself, fully clothed. She had no reason to be in here with him, in armour, staring into the bottom of the pool. 'Gods, I can't believe I'm doing this. Take your clothes off.'

Ronin smirked at her.

'In her, this end,' he said, and shed his armour with a few practised moves, stripped off his shirt and plopped into the pool. Padme covered her eyes, and her privacy, and tried to look relaxed. 'Over here. Come on, I'm not gonna hurt you, Thistledown.''It's not that,' she whispered, as she slid towards him, a bit reluctantly. 'Nevermind. Just make it look like we mean it.'Padme settled at his side. She was suddenly very aware of how warm his body was. She could feel a firm, flat tummy at her side. _Finally_, she thought, _I'm in a warm bath with a fella, only I was kind of hoping it'd be under different, more romantic, circumstances_. She'd never felt so vulnerable as she did now, sharing a nearly naked bath with a man she hardly knew. Just so some freaky blood beasts might think they were about to get it on. Then a red tendril pushed the door open. Ronin turned his head, and by the time the Wailers saw him he looked genuinely grieved.

'Seven sisters!' he said, frustrated. 'I'm working on it!'

Padme covered her mouth with her hand and tried not to look at Ronin. She could feel his broad shoulders behind her, and hear the water sloshing against him. She turned her face away. She really didn't want to look. If they did ever get home, she was never going to be able to look at the commander again without thinking he had a beautiful bod.

Then red tendrils snaked outward, and the three Wailers touched each other. Ronin watched, with a sense of rising dread. It seemed they were conferring. Then the red face turned to him.

'_Closer_,' it instructed.

Ronin stared at it.

'_Closer. Close. New? Hard to know how-_'

Now he cringed.

'Guys, when I was new to this, I was a whole lot more interested than I am now-'

Then they paused and turned their attention to Padme.

'_New_-' they said, as one.

Padme blushed. She stared at the side of the pool and said nothing, which was explanation enough. Ronin felt for her. That wasn't something most recruits wanted to admit in front of their commanding officers. Then, hissing, the Wailers took hold of her and began pushing her towards him.

'I can work it out for myself-' she said, blushing furiously.

'We know what to do,' he said. 'Privacy?'

The Wailers didn't look convinced. They stood back. Ronin didn't need to speak their language to understand them. Then two sets of tentacles dived under the water. Ronin backed up as they dived to his thighs.

'Wow, hold it there buddy-'

'No, get off!' Padme panicked, kicking at them. 'Ronin!' she yelped, as they grabbed her legs.

Ronin grabbed for the tentacle that was trying to climb her thigh.

'What the hell is it doing!'

'Interfering,' Ronin said.

Then something touched his waist, and snaking down the band of his underwear, it went one step too far for any man. Ronin grabbed the tendril and squeezed, hard. It resisted, but he bent it back, just as hard, and it finally retracted. He hadn't been expecting that much strength. It was worrying. He couldn't fight off an entire world of them.

'Get your damned hands off my-'

Then Padme actually screamed. Kicking her legs, Ronin saw what the tendril was trying to do. He grabbed it from between her legs and dragged it off her body, then hauling on it with everything he had, he was surprised the Wailer yelled and retracted it sharply.

'Shit-' Padme breathed.

Her heart thundered. She could remember seeing the commander for the first time just a few weeks before. And she'd never imagined that she was going to end up mostly naked in a bathtub, being encouraged to mate with him by weird blood beasts. He was disturbingly warm against her back.

'I don't need your help,' Padme said to them. If this was how they had to play it, she realized a few things – like pride- might have to take a dirt bath. 'I have it all worked out. Have you ever heard of waiting, any of you? God almighty. Can't a girl get round to her first time in her _own time_!'

Conferring. Blinking. Then they retreated. Tensely, the leaf men waited while they crossed the room. Then as they slipped through, Ronin released her quickly. Padme backed up against the side and covered her face.

'Shit!' she breathed.

Ronin held both his hands up in surrender.

'I won't even remember what you said,' he claimed.

Padme gazed up at him.

'Thanks,' she said. 'But I will. I've got to get out of here before I lose more than my mind.'

'You're not losing it to me, kid. I mean. _I forget_.'

Padme caught the little smile at the corners of his lips. She pointed to the door.

'They don't agree,' she said. Then she burst into tears.

Ronin had to sympathize. Especially since it wasn't hard to find her attractive. He was concerned about a more...direct...intervention too. And he didn't want to stick around to find out how that went. Ronin climbed out and wiped the water off his face.

'Come on,' he said gently. 'So you're a virgin. It's not that big a deal.'

Trembling, she slipped her shirt back on and went for the wet clothes, too.

'You think you're the first girl with a secret?' he said to her back. 'Come on. I joined up when I was sixteen. I was captured by a Boggan patrol at seventeen. They raped the girls, predictably. And then they raped the boys. You have to survive it.'

Padme stared at him.

'What?'

'You heard me. Or did you think life with the leaf men excluded that sort of thing? Sure they don't talk about it much in basic training. But it's a cold, hard world out there, Thistledown. The Boggans will sink to any depths to demoralise the men. That's a great way to do it.'

Padme shook her head.

'Come on. Up you get.'

'You were raped?'

Ronin pulled her to her feet.

'Think of it like a waking nightmare, Thistledown. When you wake up, it's over. If I were you, I'd find a nice boy and lose it, before the Boggans can use it against you.'

Ronin dived. He hauled on the bars. Planting a foot on either side of the drain, he pulled until his arms burned. Over and over, he dived and pulled, until the bolts worked loose. Then the drain cover burst free, and he could feel the suction. Whatever he'd done, it's broken the membranous seal beyond and the pool was emptying. He waited, until Padme came to his side. The water level went down.

'Go on,' he said. And she ducked under the water and was sucked down. He let go.

000

On the other end of the wild tunnel ride, Ronin sat on a heap of waste food and groaned.

'Oh God, this is disgusting.'

Padme, nearby, tipped her head back to look up.

'What is this place?'

'Looks like a great big waste container to me,' he said. 'Come on. Let's find an exit.'

Ronin slid down a long bank, and close behind him, Padme followed. When they reached the bottom, Ronin banged his sword lightly against the wall.

'Dig,' he said.

She shut her eyes a moment in disgust, then she did as he said.

Moving banana peels and fruit rinds, scooping away sticky old remnants and leaves. Ronin couldn't help but notice there was very little flesh down here, mostly just vegetable matter. He filed that away. And at the bottom of what turned out to be a new barrel was an opening through which the liquid dripped. He slid into it, stamping it down. Then the floor gave out and he was falling. He landed on a vegetable patch, barely lit.

'Come on, it's OK,' he ventured, and pulling Padme down, they went together down the lines of white cabbages and carrots.

'What is this?' she breathed.

'A garden,' he suggested. 'Underground. Upside down. Like us. What can they grow without the sun?'

'Maybe these plants don't need the sun,' Padme suggested.

'Maybe. Come on, down here.'

And sure enough, at the bottom of the plot, it emptied into a stone corridor. As they walked it became obvious that the corridors were built in a circular fashion, ascending through many levels and branching into multiple garden plots. Around the centre was a honeycomb interior, in which tiny sacks of crimson seemed to be developing within a thick, organic goo.

Padme peered at one. 'It's an embyro,' she said. She felt a bit sick at that.

Ronin looked closer. The pink light reflected in his eyes. Padme didn't look too closely.

'That's kind of weird. but-' he shifted a bit closer. 'Wow-'

'What do you mean, wow!'

'Didn't you see it? It twitched! Look at its eyes-'

Padme shook her head.

'I don't want to look at it. It's gross.'

Ronin came away from the embryo. They walked. Every so often a Wailer would come from one direction or the other. They'd duck or dive into whatever space they could find. Once they squashed together into a tiny alcove, and Ronin whispered,

'Are you OK?'

She nodded. In the low glow from the bioluminscent, white plants, she looked like she had stars in her eyes, and silver in her hair. Ronin found her beautiful. She reminded him so much of Tara.

They crept upward, always upward. Ronin began to entertain visions of the sun. But walking all day didn't seem to have gotten them any closer to the exit. It was then, sitting on a cherry pit that Ronin began to get a deep sense of disquiet. Peering around the hanging, sticky stalactites of rotting vegetable matter that seemed to make the floors and walls in this place, he gazed at the circular corridors.

'The corridors have gotten shorter,' he said.

'What do you mean?' Padme asked.

'I mean, look at how they intersect. The distance between each join is getting less and less,' then he stared at her. 'Shit.'

Padme looked down at her feet.

'You're joking.'

'Inverse,' he said. 'Everything was upside down. We need to go down, _but up_. Oh, my head.'

'We're deeper than we were before?'

Ronin looked at her.

'Yes.'

000

Walking down felt worse. It was like trudging toward your doom. It confused the eyes and it made Padme wonder if she'd gone mad down here. Deep in this dark, dank place, where the only light came from the pods mounted behind the embryos cradles, it was like a stroll through hell. Every so often one of them would twitch, and Padme would feel quite sick.

Ronin grabbed her hand and dragged her into an alcove when two Wailers came slipping past. When they were gone, the pair emerged again and continued their twisted descent.

'I've cracked up,' she whispered, in the dark of a long tunnel. 'Ronin. I've cracked up.'

He turned to her in the red light cast by baby bugs.

'You're still alive,' he said. 'I am too. Let's keep it alive, at least. We can worry about our sanity later.'

Padme just nodded. Deeper, and deeper they went. Spirally downwards, Padme began to wear thin. She started to wonder if maybe Ronin was in on all this, and he was secretly taking her deeper. Deeper into the netherworld. Inverse Universe, she thought. Maybe down here. Oh GOD. Padme stopped dead. Understanding dawned.

'What? What is it?' Ronin turned.

'Oh God, Ronin-'

'In here.'

Inside the sweaty little space between two stalactites and a wall, Padme covered her mouth with her hands and tried not to hyperventilate. Her eyes had gone wide, he whole body tense. Ronin grabbed the back of her neck.

'What's wrong?'

'It's inverse!' she breathed, 'Oh God, it's all inside out! Upside down! An Inverse Universe!'

Ronin looked her up and down.

'How?' he asked softly.

'I don't know. I don't know!'

'Shhh. Calm down, calm down,' he rubbed her arms. 'Come on. If it is, then we know how to get out?'

Then Padme rocked to and fro on her heels. She looked down at the squishy ground. She bent. Ronin made a noise, but she ignored him and she looked closer. She ran her hand over it.

'It's fruit!' she almost yelled.

'Shhh!' Ronin joined her.

'It's fruit! It's...we're in a nest. It's made of what they eat. Have you seen a single bone, a single dead guy!'

'No,' he admitted.

'They're eating the stuff that's alive up there and bringing it down here. Only when they get here, it turns inside out, and upside down! Life becomes death. Death becomes life. Oh...Oh God, I know what happened to the soldiers!'

Ronin nodded.

'The embryos. God that makes more sense than I can get my head around,' he said. 'Life becomes death and vice versa. Why didn't they kill us?'

Padme shook her head.

'I don't know. Maybe we're dead and we just don't know it yet.'

'Well if we are, I'm going home to tell my Ma I'm a dead man.'

Padme had to smile. She stood up.

'Or maybe...they're trying to make life?'

'Oh shit,' Ronin cracked a smile. He gestured between them. 'Life! They're obsessed with life. That's why they wanted us to...well.'

Padme nodded, victoriously.

'Yes!'

'We we've got to get out before they turn us into a farm for-' he gestured with his fingers, 'tiny little things.'

'Ronin-' Padme screwed up her face. 'You do have a sense of humour.'

'Of course I do!' he said, as she walked toward the door. He rubbed a hand over his skull, followed her. 'I've got to work on my reputation,' he mumbled.

'Down!' Padme breathed, pointing to her feet. 'As far down as we can go.'

Ronin smirked as he jogged along behind her. Watching her run was definitely quite nice, he thought. Then she danced into an alcove and he slipped in behind her, as Wailers walked by. They carried a small, newborn red body between them. It moved its tendrils and reached for them as they went. The leaf men watched them pass. Padme cast a glance up at Ronin.

'That's so sweet,' she said. 'Not.'

He found himself wanting to laugh.

'It could be quite beautiful. If they hadn't been trying to get me to rape you.'

'I don't think they wanted you to rape me,' Padme said. 'They wanted me to consent.'

Then, standing at the deepest point of the Wailers hive, Ronin looked up at the dome ceiling. Padme tipped her head back.

'We need to get up there,' she said.

Ronin put a hand on the multicolored wall. Then he put a foot on it, and in a moment of madness he trusted this weird place to give him more of that odd gravity. Sure enough, he walked up the wall at the waist, his eyes tightly closed.

'Am I falling?' he smiled.

'No, you look silly though.'

He opened one eye, then the other.

'Get up here, let's see how you look.'

Nervously, Padme followed. Soon they were standing upside down, looking down at what should be up.

'Dig,' Padme said.

Ronin dragged chunks of rotten fruit flesh away, and tossing them side they slowly made a hole in the ceiling. Then as they went deeper, the fruit got blacker and blacker, and tiny grains of soil began to mix with it. Padme dug her fingers in. Then she pulled her knife and used it to loosen the slimy, disgusting mass so she could drag it out with her hands. Widening the hole, Ronin began to feel something. _Grass._

Then a moment later, it protruded from the grass in another world, and Ronin could feel the sun on his skin.

A minute later, he was dragging himself through a dirty hole, covered in bits of rotten fruit, and emerging into a familiar world. He reached down and pulled Padme through. She stood unsteadily, as if waiting for gravity to change its mind, and gazed up at the distant sun.

'Oh thank God!' she said, opening her arms to soak up the rays. 'Thank God!'

And she was hardly surprised when Ronin sank to one knee and whispered a now familiar prayer to his Gods. She didn't say anything. She was happy calling the sun hers for now. She was so happy to finally see its face.

'Come on,' he touched her arm. 'Let's get out of her and find some shelter. We need to work out where we are.'

Padme followed, jogging over green grass. She'd never seen this place either, but it hardly mattered. She was closer to home than she'd imagined she'd ever be again.

Inside the hole, within the Inverse Universe, Padme's knife lay abandoned on the ceiling, beside a hole just big enough for two bodies to get through. Slipping into the deepest part of their hive, two Wailers looked up. They extended red tendrils and began to talk. Before long they were joined by ten more. And then more and more, began to flood downwards. They started to climb.

* * *

Chapter 3 coming soon. ;)


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